


Family

by Causa



Category: Steven Universe (Cartoon)
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-06-26
Updated: 2015-06-26
Packaged: 2018-04-06 07:53:40
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,218
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/4213926
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Causa/pseuds/Causa
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>"Pearl, are you my mom?"</p>
            </blockquote>





	Family

It wasn’t until Steven was older that Pearl noticed how protective she had become of him. But Amethyst was unable to give anything resembling competent guidance, and Garnet didn’t see Rose’s figure crumbling into nothingness each time the boy leaned too far over the ledge of the stairs. 

She was unsure how attentive Steven was in comparison to human children, only that he was far more sensitive than she had initially assumed. 

“Pearl,” the young child said, tugging at her skirt. She knelt to his level, saw his gentle eyes—Rose’s eyes—and the excitement that tugged at his lips, like Rose’s. 

“Are you my mom?” 

Pearl felt her face flush as her mind flooded with everything she had ever read about human relationships and everything Rose had told her about them. 

“Er—no, Steven,” she said. “Hasn’t your father talked to you about this?” 

“Kinda,” Steven said simply, with a shrug. 

“Well, Steven,” Pearl began slowly, looking to the golden-framed portrait of every bit of happiness she had felt in her life, then back to the child, “your mother gave up her form so you could be born—she was a gem, like me. So your only living parent is—“

“Dad!”

Pearl crossed her arms and her chest sunk. “Yes, Steven.” 

“But you’re kind of like my mom anyway. You make food for me, you clean up after me, you teach me things, you’re always making sure I don’t get hurt.” 

“I guess,” said Pearl. “I don’t understand your human concept of family. I’m not your biological mother,” she said, looking to the portrait once more, her body then feeling light and warm. “Oh, Steven, if she was still alive—she would’ve been such a good mother.”

“ _You’re_ a good mother,” said Steven. Pearl laughed.

“Oh, no, it wouldn’t be anywhere near the same. She was—she would—” 

She remembered the smile Rose would give, so happy and delicate, to the children on the beach when one of them, awestruck, would approach her, and Pearl remembered the sound of her soothing laugh and silky voice as she spoke to them with giggles and bright eyes. 

_”They’re so interesting, Pearl! They just listen and it all means so much to them!”_

_The closest thing to them on Homeworld was the trainees, and they didn’t absorb knowledge like the humans did; they only followed directions. Like she used to. But humans didn’t need to change—they simply existed, attentive, eager—and that was beautiful to Rose. And, Pearl admitted to herself, it was beautiful to her, too. Perhaps that was the only good thing about humans: nothing stopped their curiosity, not circumstance, not conflict, not duty._

_“Oh, don’t you love them?” Rose asked her._

_They were loud and sticky and their expectant eyes made her think of how she often looked and that made her insides crawl._

_No, she thought, but I love you._

__  
“Pearl?” Steven’s high voice was marred with concern.

“Y—yes, Steven?” 

“Usually there’s a mom and a dad and—” 

“Nothing about your situation is _usual_ , Steven. You’re only half-human and soon you’ll have to come live with us all the time so we can teach you what that means.” 

Steven giggled. “I know! But it’s—” his face softened “—I was thinking, you’re kind of like my mom, and my dad is my dad, and—family’s supposed to spend time together and get along with each other…and—” his voice hitched “—and Garnet and Amethyst do, a lot, but I never see you and Dad together and when you are you two never smile and—and—”

Tears ran down his face and Pearl felt—she did not know from where it arose—compelled to take him in her arms; confusion stirred in her stomach. Why was he crying? 

“St—Steven, what is it?”

“I want everyone to get along,” he sniffled, “like—like a family.” 

“Steven, we—we’re not—”

His face was red and swollen and his large eyes overflowed with tears that left streaks on his rounded cheeks; he looked just like _her_ when she would sit quietly at the cliff past her favorite tree and reminisce about the war. At first her voice was slightly electric, laced with anticipatory energy at the prospect of sharing with someone, but gradually it grew darker and breathier until her chest would begin to convulse and she was choking on her own sobs, her voice mangled and her face contorted. 

“Don’t—Don’t cry, Ros—” Pearl inhaled sharply. “S—Steven. Don’t cry, Steven.” 

Steven wiped his eyes, not noticing her gaffe. “I just want you and Dad to get along. I want everyone to get along—like a family.” 

“Steven, we—we do get along,” Pearl said, and Steven let out a loud sob. 

“I see how you avoid each other and you wouldn’t even come to my birthday party because it was at—”

“Oh, Steven,” she said quickly, “that’s not—that’s not why—”

Who in their right mind would celebrate the day when Rose died? And so often? 

“I just want you to get along,” Steven said with another sniffle. Pearl felt her body tense. 

“O—Okay, Steven,” she said. _Anything to get him to stop._ “We will. I’ll see to it.” 

The boy’s eyes lit up. “Really?”

The following day, when Garnet and Amethyst were watching Steven, Pearl left for Greg’s. He was not at the car wash, but outside his storage shed, holding a picture of Rose that he gingerly placed on a nearby box before waving to her. 

“Hey, Pearl,” he said, chapped lips parted with confusion. “Is Steven with you?” 

Her breaths were shallow and her face on fire. “N—no, I…need to speak to you alone.” 

“You’re blushing,” he said. “Is everything alright?”

“It’s about—uh— _us_.”

“Oh?” 

“He’s—Steven’s—very attentive.”

Greg nodded happily. Pearl sighed.

“He wants us to spend more time together.” 

Greg’s smile disappeared. “I think this is the first time we’ve been alone together since Rose—”

Pearl crossed her arms. “I wouldn’t mind keeping it that way, but Steven—he notices,” she said. 

The man’s face was sunken and the circles under his eyes became more prominent when he frowned. 

“Yeah, Steven—Steven has a way of noticing things.” 

Pearl noticed his eyes soften when Steven’s name fell from his lips with gentleness reminiscent of the way Rose would sometimes speak; Pearl grimaced. 

“I’ll just accompany Amethyst to a few of your—cooking things,” she said. 

“Do you still hate me?” Greg said quietly after a nod of the head and moments of silence. 

Pearl inhaled, and the air hit her throat with harshness that made her cough; her mouth was dry and her body tingling. 

“Yes,” she said softly. 

“You do?” His voice was weak. 

“If it weren’t for you Rose would still be here,” she said.

“But Steven wouldn’t be either.” 

Silence gripped her throat; she cleared it and said, “If you could choose between them, who would you rather have here?” 

“That’s impossible,” he said. “Both. I’d want them both.” 

“Humans are so greedy,” Pearl said with a long, slow sigh she felt crawling through her that she saw curl around her face in the open air on the exhale. 

Disgust slithered through her stomach. She would have said the same thing he did.


End file.
